August 28, 2014

Survey on Indian Research Scholars

Recently, I have initiated a survey to gather the issues faced by research scholars across India. I have posted the link to this survey in the facebook page titled "Research Scholars of India". This survey lasted for 10 days (16-26 August 2014).

This survey received a good response as much as from 85 research scholars across India spanning a number of universities and institutions. Participants also ranged from all the possible major funding sources in India for research. In summary this report is indicative of the grim situation faced by the research scholars in India.

Following are the highlights of the survey:

This survey has 73% male participation against 23% female. The rest chose not to mention their sex.

90% of the respondents have clarity about their registration for PhD

Nearly 50% of the scholars say that they do not get monthly stipends and are facing administrative issues either at the host institutions or at funding agencies.

More than 60% scholars indicate that the stipend is barely sufficient to meet their individual needs.

About 80% of the researchers are in distress and not satisfied.

80% researchers say that they can not meet the financial needs in case they are married and most of them decided not to get married. Few researchers, in their personal communication also mentioned that their marriage prospects are next to nothing!

A whopping 98% researchers are facing tough life either due to work environment or insufficient stipends.

For those who want to have a look at the survey, they can do so at this webpage. Further suggestions are welcome to improve this report!